January 18, 2023 Talks by Mr. MATSUMOTO, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, with Honorable GRAVES, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce, and Honorable DAVIDSON, NTIA Administrator, and Signing of Memorandum of Cooperation

On Tuesday, January 17, 2023, Mr. MATSUMOTO Takeaki, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, held talks with Honorable Don GRAVES, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce, and Honorable Alan DAVIDSON, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) signed the Memorandum of Cooperation between both organizations on open and resilient telecommunications networks.

1. Outcome of the talks with Deputy Secretary GRAVES and Administrator DAVIDSON

On Tuesday, January 17, 2023 (U.S. local time), Minister MATSUMOTO held talks with Deputy Secretary GRAVES and Administrator DAVIDSON, during which they affirmed that they would cooperate closely on such topics as the followings, particularly within multilateral frameworks such as the G7:

• 1.
  construction of resilient telecommunications networks;
• 2.
  maintenance, expansion, and strengthening free and open internet; and
• 3.
  promotion of human-centered AI implementation.

They also affirmed the shared commitment of Japan and the U.S. to ensuring the resilience and safety of telecommunications networks. Both sides signed the Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between MIC and the U.S. Department of Commerce's NTIA on open and resilient telecommunications networks.

2. Purpose of the MoC

The MIC and the NTIA signed the MoC to affirm the shared commitment of Japan and the U.S. to ensuring the resilience and safety of telecommunications networks, and to encourage the following activities in particular:

• the exchange of information on Open RAN testing-related activities;
• cooperation in awareness-raising and information-sharing activities related to Open RAN in third countries; and
• cooperation in multilateral fora on topics such as 5G and Beyond 5G/6G including Open RAN.

3. Next step

Based on the MoC, the MIC will continue to promote concrete cooperation between Japan and the U.S. for open and resilient telecommunications networks.